Thread: Restoring Razor with Mold

So this is where I'm at. I used some 150 AlOx sandpaper and 400 SiC sandpaper. For the tail, I even used my small lansky hones.

How much should I try to get rid of those black spots? They look kinda deep.
How much should I worry about the scratches bringing rust back?

Ideally you should remove the scales.
You can clean the black out and leave the pitting. It is often better for the stamps that way. Steel wool and WD-40 or polish works pretty good to clean out the black. 0000 on the steel wool. It does take some elbow grease.

Looks like the standard rust that happens to razors. Not Mold. Do as Rez said, Cleaning well with polish or WD-40 and 0000 steel wool does wonders. You won't get rid of the pitting, but clean as much of the black off as possible. Unpinning can be a bit tricky the first few times you try it, but its best so that you can get in there to clean correctly.

Or contact someone around here that restores and see what they will charge ya. The rust still may come back. It happens. Just be sure it's completely dry before storing or even closing it up. It almost looks like a line of rust across the tang. This could be from it being a bit wet when you put it away. Just one of the signs to look for. Lines or many tiny spots. The multitude of tiny spots could mean its off-gassing, but I don't think you have that issue. Thanks for the pics. It helps a lot when trying to help others.

I really want to avoid removing the scales though... What's the consequence? The rust will come back quick over there?

Withour removing scales you wont get the rust out of the pivot area. With rust still on the blade it can spread quicker. To properly restore pull pins and sand. But this can be a lot of work and depending on if you habe a few razors or just two, you might just clean it up the best you can, know that rust will come back, but shabe just fine. As long as the rust doesnt get to the edge. Then you got issues.

The pivot is notorious for rust. You should remove the scales. If your skill set or confidence is not there yet you can come back to this later. I believe Geezer has had good success at cleaning pivots with twisted dental floss and polish. Pull the pins and sand as stated above is the most comprehensive restore procedure.

If you don’t want to remove the scales and just do a cleanup, you have to decide how much pitting to live with.

You can chemically treat the pitting to stop or slow it down, I use Evaporust for that, you can spot apply repeatedly with a Qtip or brush. I don’t know if Fluid Film will penetrate and chemically alter or stop the rust, but you can test it. Pick a deep pit, treat with the fluid, allow to penetrate per instructions, then pick at the pit with a sharp awl or dental pick, see it there is active red rust at the bottom of the pit.

You can polish the blade with 400 and 600 grit Wet & Dry and bring to a high shine with 1000 and 2000, and finish with any good metal polish. The problem you may have is removing the deep 150 grit scratches. Aggressive sandpapers are a double edge sword and can cause more work. A wine cork, piece of rubber hose or large eraser make good sanding backers and will save your fingers for long term sanding. Erasers and corks can be cut and sanded to shape for better sanding contact.

You can make sanding sticks with wooden paint sticks and or coffee stir stick glued together and cut to size to fit between the scales and sand paper strips glued to the sticks to clean and polish, or wrap with sand paper. Gluing sand paper to a stick makes a “safe edge” sander to prevent sanding the scale and just the tang.

I use 1 inch, 3m Radial Bristle Polishing discs and a Dremel to clean and polish between the tang and the jimps. They are inexpensive and come in different grits, I use the 60 grit and 400 grits mostly. You can get a pack of grits from eBay for around $10-15. They also make larger 6 in wheels for buffers, that work great but run about 60-100 dollars.

If using a Dremel, do be careful, watch rotation, it is easy to ruin a razor with a Dremel. Think about what you about to do and pay attention.